Real Player

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 26 Oct 2002 4:31 am

I received a message from Real Player a week or so ago that my version was outdated and that I needed to upgrade. I assumed that they were just trying to sell me an upgrade. I was getting the basic for free. So, I just deleted the message. Now, my Real Player will not work on ra. (Ricky's) files. I went to their site to get re-installed, but all I could find was a free deal for 14 days, after which I would have to pay $24.95 per quarter. Is the totally free download still available and how can I get it?

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 26 Oct 2002 5:49 am

The free player is on their website, but they make you go through a few screens to find it, and then it's hidden in the corner of a screen.

Ben Wittke · Post by **Ben Wittke** » 26 Oct 2002 8:08 am

Try this website. http://www.kalvos.org/realdown.html

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 26 Oct 2002 1:12 pm

Thanks Jim and Ben for trying, but I still can't get it to work. I am on vs. 8.6 Macintosh IMAC, which is not listed on Ben's site. I did down load 8.5 from Ben's site to no avail. All the sites on Jim's suggestion applied to a OS-X system or something like that.

I hate computers. Except when they are not working, then I realize how much I love them and would promise them the moon just to come back to me. They're a lot like women.

Tommy Mc · Post by **Tommy Mc** » 27 Oct 2002 9:13 am

George....If you go to Real's website, Look hard, the free version is well hidden. You can also download older versions. On the main page, click on 'System Requirements'
This brings a pop-up window with..... (guess what?)..... the minimum requirements for RealOne. At the bottom of that pop-up, you can find a link to download OLDER versions. Maybe you can find what you need there.

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 28 Oct 2002 7:05 pm

Tommy, thanks. I went back and gave it another try with your advice and got it to work with my Macintosh System 8. I am up and running again thanks to the forum.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 31 Oct 2002 2:59 pm

Real Player sucks, IMHO. They are constantly pitching ads at you, and the player accesses their website behind the scenes without your permission. I don't trust them one bit.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6), Roland Handsonic

John Hawkins · Post by **John Hawkins** » 31 Oct 2002 5:16 pm

b0b ,
I am with you ! I didn't leave Real Player in my system long ! I hope I have found all the nicks and corners they hide in once in your computer . I'll never use that program again !!

John

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 31 Oct 2002 6:09 pm

I hate it too, but what do you use to view .ra and .rm files?

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 1 Nov 2002 6:01 am

I hate it too, but what do you use to view .ra and .rm files?

If you already have RealPlayer installed, download and install UltraPlayer. This product uses the Real codecs (DLLs) but bypasses the player, negating the spyware and phone-home features. In fact, I've removed RealPlayer from my system entirely, excepting the DLLs.

b0b, if you use UltraPlayer and then configure your firewall to block outbound connections from RealPlayer, you can also stop any communication with Real's home site.

I just noticed UltraPlayer's web site mentions RealPlayer capability on the first page, but no longer mentions it in the FAQ. They must have taken some heat from Real. But it absolutely works.

I've also heard there is a RealPlayer plug-in that works with WinAmp.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 1 Nov 2002 9:51 am

Thanks, Jeff. I would like to get rid of Real Player too. So I just dowloaded and installed Ultra Player as you suggest.

Unfortunately, Ultra Player does not play .ra files. It loads them, and when I click Play, the minutes/seconds counter changes hundredths of a second but stays on 00:00.

Real Player plays my .ra files just fine.

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 1 Nov 2002 8:02 pm

Unfortunately, Ultra Player does not play .ra files.

Earnest,

It really will work. Things to check:
<ol>[*]Be sure RealPlayer has been installed on your system at least once and that the DLLs are still present. After installing and configuring UltraPlayer, you can then delete the actual RealPlayer app.

[*]Click UltraPlayer's Options button, then click Settings. Click the File Types tab. Select the last option listed: Real Audio/Video (.rm, .ram, .ra)[/list]

If this doesn't work, I have a suspicion UltraPlayer may have removed the capability in the latest release. I'm running 2.112. You can download this version here.

Uninstall your existing copy before installing this release. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to check your registry for leftover references before installing 2.112.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 2 Nov 2002 10:51 am

Jeff,
Thanks; I really appreciate your suggestions. But I think I had already done those things.

My Ultra player is also 2.112, downloaded and installed yesterday.

Ultra Player is the default player for the .ra file type. It loads them without complaining. But playback is silent, and the minutes/seconds counter never advances to 1 second. It does, however, cycle thru hunredths of a second while (not) playing.

So it looks like Ultra Player is not able to use the Real codecs that it needs. (?) But why not? After all, Real Player is currently installed on my system. Its codecs appear to be in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\ where there are many folders full of .dll's and other stuff. There are also lots of .dll's in C:\Program Files\Real\RealOne Player\. The Real player plays .ra files just fine.

What else could it be?

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 2 Nov 2002 11:16 am

And Ultra Player plays other file types just fine (.mp3, .mid, ...)

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 3 Nov 2002 1:56 pm

Just a guess, but I would suspect a problem with file associations and that RealPlayer is still attempting to control the files.

After you install UltraPlayer, if you even simply launch RealPlayer, it will take over the file associations again. I just now checked it looking for preference settings and found it had wiped out my UltraPlayer prefs.

So here's what I would try, in order:

<ol>[*]Manually change all existing Real file types to open with UltraPlayer, including .ra, .rm, .smi, the works.

[*]Rename the existing Programs/Real folder.

[*]Rename the RealPlayer executable.

[*]Clean the registry of any RealPlayer references. (Not the file types, just refs to the Player. I haven't needed to do this on my system, but you never know.)

[*]Reinstall UltraPlayer again on top of the existing copy.[/list]

Hope this helps.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 4 Nov 2002 1:07 am

Jeff
Thanks for those ideas. But they didn't make any difference.

Nothing remains of Real Player except the .dll's. And in the registry I got rid of all referneces to RealPlayer, RealJukebox, RealSystemMP, RealMedia, RealNetworks, RealVideo, RealAudio, and RealOne. (There were hundreds of them.)

The exception would be that I didn't delete the 100+ entries in Windows/explorer/Shared DLLs which reference C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real\Codecs\.

Also I didn't delete references to RealPix, RealSearch, nor RealText. Those might not be part of the devil RealPlayer. Or are they?

Got any more ideas?

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 4 Nov 2002 5:19 am

Earnest,

Also I didn't delete references to RealPix, RealSearch, nor RealText. Those might not be part of the devil RealPlayer. Or are they?

Yes, RealPix and RealText are part of the .smil format. I'm not sure about RealSearch but it probably is, as well. But I doubt that's the problem.

Got any more ideas?

Well, you're probably not going to like it. We're just guessing at this point so basic troubleshooting techniques would suggest going back to the beginning. Ugh. Which would involve uninstalling everything (Real and Ultra, that is), installing a known copy of Real, testing it to be sure things work as expected, removing all the Real components except the codecs, then installing Ultra. A lot of work.

Just out of curiosity, let me find out what version of Real I'm running. I'm not in front of that machine at the moment. Let me know which version you used, and on which OS.

Also, I'm wondering if we shouldn't take this to e-mail inasmuch as we've pretty much hijacked the thread

Feel free to send me your info via the e-mail link and I'll respond.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 4 Nov 2002 8:49 am

wondering if we shouldn't take this to e-mail

Sure but I bet many other people would like to get Real Player off their system. Is anybody reading this?

Well, you're probably not going to like it. ... uninstalling everything (Real and Ultra, that is), installing a known copy of Real, testing it to be sure things work as expected, removing all the Real components except the codecs, then installing Ultra. A lot of work.

Not so much work really. It's easier than what I've done already (manually deleting hundreds of things from the registry).

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 4 Nov 2002 9:09 am

Uninstalled Ultra player. (There was nothing left of Real Player to unintsall).
Reinstalled both.
Same problem. When I click Play in Ultra Player, to play a .ra file, the counter stays on 0 minutes and 0 secorns and I hear no sound. However, the counter displays 2 small digits which look like hundredtsh of a secons, and they keep chaning while Ultra Player is (not) playing.

My OS is Windows ME.

Ultra Player is v 2.112, downloaded today.

Real Player is v 2, downloaded today.

Everett Cox · Post by **Everett Cox** » 4 Nov 2002 5:31 pm

Jeff, Earnest-- FWIW, I just installed UltraPlayer 2112 on my Win95c box which has RealPlayer BASIC. RealPlayer was working OK.

During the Ultra install, I specified it being the default ONLY for the Real file types. The install was EXTREMELY quick and painless-didn't even require a reboot. Afterward, double-clicking an .ra file brought up Ultra and played fine. --Everett

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 4 Nov 2002 6:01 pm

Is anybody reading this?

Well, I am, FWIW. (Of course, everybody knows I need to get a life...)

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 4 Nov 2002 6:25 pm

I'm not going to waste any more hours trying to get Ultra Player to work just so I cna listen to the steel on rebel And Ricky's site.

Maybe I should start a new thread called "How do you listen to .ra files without using Real Player?".

Peter · Post by **Peter** » 4 Nov 2002 10:04 pm

Earnest, my machine behaved exactly like yours. Ultraplayer would show the digits in the same way and not play.
I tehn re-installed Real8 (the last free version) and during installation, I switched off ALL tickmarks. So I did not allow the software do do anything. This particualr installation also installs Real Download and Jukebox. Those I unstalled and I just left Real Player on the machine. I then used Ad-Aware to remove any spyware. Now everything is working perfectly. Ultraplayer plays the files without problems. Hope this helps.

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Peter den Hartogh-Fender Artist S10-Remington U12-Hilton Volume Pedal-Gibson BR4 lapsteel-Guya "Stringmaster" Copy-MusicMan112RP-Peavy Rage158- - My Animation College in South Africa

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 5 Nov 2002 5:06 am

Earnest,

Well, Peter beat me to it. I was going to suggest installing RP8, which is what I've got. Don't use RealOne or the Jukebox.

Also, if you're not totally frustrated, you can use WinAmp with a plug-in. There are several and they can be difficult to find but you can download Tara here. It's not as nice a solution as UltraPlayer but it will work. Really. Honest. I just tried it with WinAmp 2.81 on a totally clean box that had never had Real or WinAmp installed.

Hang in there...

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 5 Nov 2002 7:43 am

Thank you guys for your patience. Where can I get Real8? I looked all over the www.real.com site and there is no reference to it there.